I was happy to learn that, now that Albuquerque’s AAA ballclub is the Dodger’s, we’ll get Vin Scully on local radio. Here’s a bit of his poetry:
One and 1 to Harvey Kuenn. Now he’s ready: fastball, high, ball 2. You can’t blame a man for pushing just a little bit now. Sandy backs off, mops his forehead, runs his left index finger along his forehead, dries it off on his left pants leg. All the while Kuenn just waiting. Now Sandy looks in. Into his windup and the 2-1 pitch to Kuenn: swung on and missed, strike 2!
It is 9:46 p.m.
Man, that is beautiful. Makes me wistful for the Scooter and his zany brand of poetry.
Plus there’s this, from Lawrence Wechsler’s piece about the light in LA:
When I reached him by phone, it didn’t take much more than the world “light” to get him launched, rhapsodizing, for instance, about how “come late July, with the sun setting off third base, the air actually turns purple tinged with gold, an awesome sight to behold, the Master Painter at work once again and, owing to the orientation of the stadium, out beyond center field, you’re staring at the mountains, and mountains beyond mountains, indeed, the purple mountains’ majesty spread out there for everyone to see. And on evenings like that it can get to be like a Frederic Remington or a Charles Russell painting, the dust billowing up from the passing cars on the freeway. If you squint your eyes and only let your imagination soar, it’s as if a herd of wild horses were kicking by.”
As you know, John, I’m not a Dodger fan, but I couldn’t help but think of you and pause yesterday when I heard Scully calling the LA-SD game last night. Great voice, great story telling.
Also, the Dodgers have an interesting young played I’d like to see at Isotopes Park this year — Chin-lung Hu. He’s a 25-year-old shortstop who plays great defense, and he’s shown offensive promise in the past.